ALTHOUGH his team came out of the semi-final round of the Nedbank Cup, the coach of Milford FC, Xanti Pupuma, takes it as an incentive to reach this stage of the competition and sees them ready to compete with other teams playing in the Betway Premiership.
Milford, who play in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, reached the finals at Nedbank, beating TS Galaxy 4-3 on penalties in the semi-finals of the competition on Sunday, at Solomon Mahlangu Stadium, KwaMhlanga.
In the quarterfinals at Nedbank, Milford beat Sekhukhune United 3-2 on penalties, before defeating another Premiership team, Galaxy, in the semi-finals.
It became the second team playing in the Motsepe Championship to lose their jersey at the weekend in the semi-finals at Nedbank as Casric Stars were also beaten 1-0 by Durban City on Saturday.
Milford’s exit from Nedbank means that they are fully focused on the struggle to win the Motsepe Championship league title.
“It’s part of the game (losing). It’s not a disaster for us to lose, so I’m not worried about it. “We will take the good things we did in this game in which we lost to TS Galaxy, and build on it in our next league games,” said Pupuma.
“Our players also see now that they can compete with the PSL (Premiership) teams, and play in the same division as them. Our exit from Nedbank gives us the opportunity to fully focus on fighting to win the league in order to achieve our goal of promotion to the PSL division at the end of the season.”
The Stallions, who have been at the top of the Championship log for most of this season, have a crucial home game against Casric at Mhlathuze Sports Complex, Richards Bay, on Wednesday at 3pm.
This game is equally important for both teams as they both have the same goals for the Championship league title.
Before the Fifa break, both teams sent a strong message to their rivals about their goals for the league title, while Milford defeated Baroka FC 5-0, while Casric beat Kruger 4-0.
Wednesday’s Motsepe Foundation Championship games (3pm): Milford FC v Casric Stars (Umhlathuze Sports Complex); Kruger United v Lerumo Lions (Kanyamazane Stadium); Upington City v Venda FC (Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs Stadium)